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<h1>I saw the sign</h1>

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<center><span class="summary">Outline</span></center>
<ol>
<li><a href="#part1">Showing signs of something</a></li>
<li><a href="#part2">Showing outward signs of an emotion using 「～がる」</a></li>
<li><a href="#part3">Using 「ばかり」 to act as if one might do something</a></li>
<li><a href="#part4">Using 「めく」 to indicate an atmosphere of a state</a></li>
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<h2 id="part1">Showing signs of something</h2>
In this lesson, we'll learn various expressions involving how to describe people who are expressing themselves without words.
For example, we'll learn how to say expressions in Japanese such as "They <u>acted</u> as if they were saying goodbye," "He <u>acted</u> disgusted," and
"She <u>acts</u> like she wants to go."



<h2 id="part2">Showing outward signs of an emotion using 「～がる」</h2>
The 「～がる」 grammar is used when you want to make an observation about how someone is feeling. This is simply an observation based on some type of
sign(s). Therefore, you would not use it for your own emotions since guessing about your own emotions is not necessary. This grammar can only be used with
adjectives so you can use this grammar to say, "He is acting scared," but you cannot say "He acted surprised," because "to be surprised" is a verb in Japanese
and not an adjective.
This grammar is also commonly used with a certain set of adjectives related to emotions such as: 「嫌」、「怖い」、「嬉しい」、or 「恥ずかしい」.


<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Using 「～がる」 for observing the emotions or feelings of others</span>
<ul class="plain">
<li><b>For i-adjectives</b>: First remove the trailing 「い」 from the i-adjective and then attach 「がる」</li>
<li>例）　怖<em><strike>い</strike></em> → 怖<em>がる</em></li>
<li><b>For na-adjectives</b>: Just attach 「がる」 to the end of the na-adjective</li>
<li>例）　重宝 → 重宝<em>がる</em></li>
</ul>
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<caption>All adjectives that are conjugated with 「～がる」 become an u-verb</caption>
<tr align="center"><th></th><th colspan="2">Positive</th><th colspan="2">Negative</th></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Non-Past</th><td>怖がる</td><td>act scared</td><td>怖がらない</td><td>not act scared</td></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Past</th><td>怖がった</td><td>acted scared</td><td>怖がらなかった</td><td>didn't act scared</td></tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>


<h3>Examples</h3>
<p>
（１）　早くきてよ！何を<em>恥ずかしがっている</em>の？
<br />- Hurry up and come here. What are you acting all embarrassed for?
</p>

<p>
（２）　彼女は朝早く起こされるのを<em>嫌がる</em>タイプです。
<br />- My girlfriend is the type to show dislike towards getting woken up early in the morning.
</p>

<p>
（３）　うちの子供はプールに入るのを理由もなく<em>怖がる</em>。
<br />- Our child acts afraid about entering a pool without any reason.
</p>

<p>
This grammar is also used to observe very frankly on what you think someone other than yourself wants.
This involves the adjective 「欲しい」 for things one wants or the <a href="desire.html#part2">「～たい」 conjugation</a> for actions one wants to do,
which is essentially a verb conjugated to an i-adjective. This type of grammar is more suited for things like narration in a story
and is rarely used in this fashion for normal conversations because of its impersonal style of observation. For casual conversations, it is more common to
use <a href="certainty.html#part4">「でしょう」</a> such as in, 「カレーを食べたいでしょう。」.
For polite conversations, it is normal to not make any assumptions at all or to use the <a href="adgobi.html#part5">「よね」 sentence ending</a> such as in
「カレーを食べたいですか。」 or 「カレーを食べたいですよね。」
</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<p>
（１）　家に帰ったら、すぐパソコンを<em>使いたがる</em>。
<br />- [He] soon acts like wanting to use computer as soon as [he] gets home.
</p>

<p>
（２）　みんなイタリアに<em>行きたがってる</em>んだけど、私の予算で行けるかどうかはとても怪しい。
<br />- Everybody is acting like they want to go to Italy but it's suspicious whether I can go or not going by my budget.
</p>

<p>
（３）　妻はルイヴィトンのバッグを<em>欲しがっている</em>んだけど、そんなもん、買えるわけないでしょう！
<br />- My wife was showing signs of wanting a Louis Vuitton bag but there's no way I can buy something like that!
</p>

<p>
「～がる」 is also used with 「屋」 to indicate a type of person that often feels a certain way such as 「恥ずかしがり屋」 (one who easily feels or acts embarrassed)、
「寒がり屋」 (one who easily feels cold)、or 「暑がり屋」 (one who easily feels hot).
</p>

<p>
（３）　私は<em>寒がり屋</em>だから、ミネソタで暮らすのは辛かった。
<br />- I'm the type who easily gets cold and so living in Minnesota was painful.
</p>

<h2 id="part3">Using 「ばかり」 to act as if one might do something</h2>
We just learned how to observe the emotions and feelings of other by using 「～がる」 with adjectives. But what about verbs? Indeed, there is a separate grammar
used to express the fact that someone else looks like they are about to do something but actually does not. Similar to the 「～がる」 grammar, this is usually not
used in normal everyday conversations. I have seen it several times in books and novels but have yet to hear this grammar in a conversation.

<p>For the regular non-past, non-negative verb, you must first conjugate the verb to the negative ending with 「ん」,
which was covered <a href="negverb2.html#part3">here</a>. Then, you just attach 「ばかり」 to the end of the verb.  For all other conjugations, nothing else is
necessary except to just add 「ばかり」 to the verb. The most common verb used with this grammar is 「言う」 . It is also usually used with the 「に」
target particle attached to the end of 「ばかり」.
</p>

<p>This grammar
is completely different from the 「ばかり」 used to express <a href="amount.html#part5">amounts</a> and the 「ばかり」 used to express the
<a href="timeaction2.html#part2">proximity of an action</a>.
</p>

<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Using 「ばかり」 to indicate that one seems to want to do something</span>
<ul class="plain">
<li><b>For present, non-negative tense</b>: Conjugate the verb to the <a href="negverb2.html#part3">「ん」 negative form</a> and attach 「ばかり」</li>
<li>例）　言<em><strike>う</strike></em> → 言わ<em><strike>ない</strike></em> → 言わ<em>ん</em> → 言わん<em>ばかり</em></li>
<li><b>For all other tenses</b>: Simply attach 「ばかり」 to the end of the verb</li>
<li>例）　言わなかった → 言わなかった<em>ばかり</em></li>
</ul>
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<caption>Summary of basic conjugations</caption>
<tr align="center"><th></th><th colspan="2">Positive</th><th colspan="2">Negative</th></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Non-Past</th><td>言わんばかり</td><td>as if to say</td><td>言わないばかり</td><td>as if [she] doesn't say</td></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Past</th><td>言ったばかり</td><td>as if [she] said</td><td>言わなかったばかり</td><td>as if [she] didn't say</td></tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<p>
（１）　ボールは爆発<em>せんばかり</em>に、膨らんでいた。
<br />- The ball was expanding as if it was going to explode.
</p>

<p>
（２）　「あんたと関係ない」と<em>言わんばかり</em>に彼女は彼を無視していた。
<br />- She ignored him as if to say, "You have nothing to do with this."
</p>

<p>
（３）　昨日のケンカで何も<em>言わなかったばかり</em>に、平気な顔をしている。
<br />- Has a calm face as if [he] didn't say anything during the fight yesterday.
</p>

<h2 id="part4">Using 「めく」 to indicate an atmosphere of a state</h2>
By now, you're probably thinking, "Ok, we've done adjectives and verbs. What about nouns?" As a matter of fact, there is a similar grammar that is used
usually for nouns and na-adjectives. It is used to indicate that something is showing the signs of a certain state. Unlike the 「～がる」 grammar, there is
no action that indicates anything; merely the atmosphere gives off the impression of the state.
Just like the previous grammar we learned in this section, this grammar has a list of commonly used nouns such as 「謎」、「秘密」、or  「皮肉」.
This grammar is used by simply attaching 「めく」 to the noun or na-adjective. The result then becomes a regular u-verb.

<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Using 「めく」 to indicate that one seems to want to do something</span>
<ul class="plain">
<li>Simply attach 「めく」 to the noun or na-adjective. The result then becomes a regular u-verb.</li>
<li>例）　謎 → 謎<em>めく</em></li>
</ul>
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<caption>Summary of basic conjugations</caption>
<tr align="center"><th></th><th colspan="2">Positive</th><th colspan="2">Negative</th></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Non-Past</th><td>謎めく</td><td>puzzling atmosphere</td><td>*謎めかない</td><td>not puzzling atmosphere</td></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Past</th><td>謎めいた</td><td>puzzled atmosphere</td><td>*謎めかなかった</td><td>not puzzled atmosphere</td></tr>
</table>
<br />* I suppose the negative tenses are theoretically possible but probably not practically.
<br />The most common tense is by the far the past tense.
</center>
</div>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<p>
（１）　紅葉が始まり、すっかり<em>秋めいた</em>空気になってきた。
<br />- With the leaves starting to change color, the air came to become quite autumn like.
</p>

<p>
（２）　そんな<em>謎めいた</em>顔をされても、うまく説明できないよ。
<br />- Even having that kind of puzzled look done to me, I can't explain it very well, you know.
</p>

<p>
（３）　いつも<em>皮肉めいた</em>言い方をしたら、みんなを嫌がらせるよ。
<br />- You'll make everyone dislike you if you keep speaking with that ironic tone, you know.
</p>

<p>For a whole slew of additional real world examples, check out the <a href="http://www.jekai.org/entries/aa/00/np/aa00np21.htm">jeKai entry</a>.
It states that the grammar can be used for adverbs and other parts of speech but none of the numerous examples show this and even assuming it's possible, it's
probably not practiced in reality.</p>

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<div class="small" style="text-align:right;"><pre>This page has last been revised on 2004/11/14</pre></div>

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